Saturday, 13. September 2008, 00:05:44
setup, customization, ribbon, opera
...
I've been playing around with a new setup, that should be usable, useful, but also 'small' in a visual sense. So without a menu bar! Almost all Opera functions will be easily accesible. But not necessarily all from the main toolbars, which was what the
ribbonesque Twelve setup tried to do. For now I've named it
Compact, but suggestions are welcome for something more memorable. (No, not Chrome. Scandium maybe? Zircon?)
So starting with the Twelve setup, I removed lots of items (though many are still available from the Appearance dialog), moved the navigation controls back to their proper place below the tab bar, and created two menu buttons for access to various actions on the left end of the tab bar: one general menu with the Opera icon, and one with the page icon with page/text specific functions.
The 'manage' pages are hardly used in this setup, which relies on the panels instead. It should be more usable than the Twelve setup for those (like me) who use Opera's mail and chat clients, but note that the toolbars for the Mail and Chat tabs are still quite compact.
To try it out, install the
Compact Toolbar 0.10 and the
Compact Menu 0.10 that goes together with it, then hide the main menu bar.
BTW, in the screenshot I'm using the
Winvista MSO2007 Blue skin.
Monday, 28. April 2008, 23:15:56
setup, opera, ribbon, customization
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[edit 2008-06-15]Updates updated: made the setups offered here compatible with 9.5 Final. Same URLs, a few new versions.I'm going from light blogging to no blogging apparently... a bad trend. I'm a little bit active on Twitter now, but not in a way that compares to my past blogging here. When 9.5 Final and Firefox 3 get released, I'll probably make an update for the Top 150 Extensions list.
But my customized setups can already use some updates, the 9.2 versions will have some broken functionality when used with Kestrel builds. So here are provisional 9.5-compatible setups, suitable for Kestrel Beta 2. Copying some description text from a blog post in April 2007 BTW
Below you can find the auto-install links, with links to old blog posts for some background info. Remember: use
Ctrl+F12 > Advanced > Toolbars to get back to your previous menus, shortcuts and toolbars.
TwelveRibbon-inspired radical setup. Use the menu and toolbar together. Hide the main menu with Alt+F11 after tweaking the shortcuts.
HuginMail-only setup. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.
More Mail Sort of a Hugin-lite that adds more mail-specific menus, shortcuts and buttons, but doesn't remove the browsing functionality. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.
Bigger MenusJust what it says.
Classic ClutterReturn to the toolbar-bonanza of Opera 7.23. With an additional Startbar even...
My Personal Setup Use at least the menu and toolbar together.
Tuesday, 17. April 2007, 09:05:54
setup, opera, merlin, firefox
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We've been rather busy with getting 9.2 out of the door, its been over a month since I last posted! To commemorate that release, I've updated all my custom setups.
Here you can find all the auto-install links, with links to old blog posts for some background info. Remember: use
Ctrl+F12 > Advanced > Toolbars to get back to your previous menus and toolbars.
TwelveRibbon-inspired radical setup. Use the menu and toolbar together. Hide the main menu with Alt+F11 after tweaking the shortcuts.
HuginMail-only setup. Very minor update. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.
More Mail Sort of a Hugin-lite that adds more mail-specific menus, shortcuts and buttons, but doesn't remove the browsing functionality. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.
Bigger MenusJust what it says.
OperaFoxFirefox lookalike. Menu and toolbar updated to be more like FF 2.0. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.
Opera ExplorerIE6-lookalike, minor update. Not really recommended - an IE7 lookalike would be better
Use at least the menu and toolbar together.
Seven-FiveReturn to the looks and shortcuts of Opera 7.5.
EightReturn to the keyboard shortcuts of Opera 8.0.
KISSOpera setup for partners and parents. The updated KISS below is even simpler than the one described at the link above.
Classic ClutterReturn to the toolbar-bonanza of Opera 7.23. Now with Startbar as well..
Single lineOne toolbar for menu, navigation and status field. Hide the menu with Alt+F11 after tweaking the shortcuts.
About-this-siteExtension for the document page context menu.
Monday, 14. August 2006, 10:58:47
office, opera, ribbon, usability
Remember me talking about the new MS Office interface, especially the
Ribbon, and how it could work for Opera? Now, while checking my feeds after getting back from vacation,
this video demo (3.3 MB) really made me drool
For those not clicking: it shows a Ribbon handling mode where it acts as a cross between menu and toolbars: taking minimal space while collapsed like an old-fashioned menu, only showing options when clicked - but then, it shows
all options in the typical Ribbon manner.
This is not something you can 'just' add to Quick (our cross platform interface layer), but I'd sure like to see this in Opera! Without having actually used it, I'd dare say it would improve usability quite a bit, giving that we want to both present a simple interface and give the user easy access to powerful features. No way to come even close with a customized toolbar this time, alas.
Tuesday, 7. February 2006, 02:30:18
office, opera, twelve, ribbon
...
Inspired by the new Ribbon interface design that is being developed for MS Office 12 [1], I wanted to see what you get in Opera, when doing away with the normal top-menu, panels and toolbars. Without sacrificing access to all the functionality Opera has to offer, of course. In this new setup, each function is available in one, easy to find, place.
Here's a screenshot of the result of this exercise, 'Twelve':
2006-06-29: updated screenshot
To try this setup yourself, install both the menu and toolbar from here:
Edit 2007-04-17: the links point to 9.2-compatible setups now
I did this by making the Alt+F11 shortcut work under Windows as well as Linux:
- Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts
- Doubleclick the active keyboard setup, and enter 'F11' in the Quick Find field
- Remove 'Platform Unix, ' from 'Platform Unix, F11 alt', then click OK a lot
- Now toggle the menu bar away with Alt+F11
Use 'Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Toolbars' to return to your previous setup.
For more info, explanation, and screenshots, visit the page 'Twelve' on my website.
[1] You can read some background information on the Ribbon
WIDGETIZE